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23 April 2012

Yet more on "Hardwired" Politics

Yet another book review in The Guardian repeats that oft made conjecture that our political values are "wired" into our brains. And so we learn:

Although [Jonathan] Haidt [author of The Righteous Mind] glosses over the uncomfortable conclusions of what he is saying on issues such as race and human rights, his core point is simple and well-made: our morality, much of it wired into brains from birth, at the same time binds us together and blinds us to different configurations of morality. Gut feelings drive strategic reasoning, which can make it difficult to connect with those across the gulf, especially for liberals.

In other words, liberals are naturally incapable of understanding "patriotism" and that's because - as the author so ably describes - liberals lack the "taste-buds" for understanding loyalty, authority, and patriotism. I should know better than to respond to such drivel on Monday morning, but really?

Let me offer a modest proposal: any psychologist, neurologist, moral philosopher, or psychiatrist wishing to neurologize Left-wing misgivings about patriotism, loyalty, and authority must give three public lectures on politics in Bismarck's Germany to an audience of strict conservatives.